Reasonable Doubt
by DixieH
Summary: Can Bobby use the internet and fan fiction to get what he wants? Maybe fan fiction is real or maybe it isn’t. The question is will Alex let Bobby mess up her plans? Read this - then read CIFAN's fabulous second chapter "Reasonable Evidence".


_Can Bobby use the internet and fan fiction to get what he wants? Maybe fan fiction is real or maybe it isn't. The question is will Alex let Bobby mess up her plans? - Dix._

_No copy write infringement is intended or implied. All characters belong to Dick Wolfe et al._

**Reasonable Doubt**

Eames was standing in the bathroom in her robe, giving her make up a critical look, when the phone rang. She stepped into the bedroom and glanced at the clock radio. It said 7:17 pm. She picked up the phone beside it.

"Hello" She said, trying to anticipate a telemarketer or her date - cancelling again. It turned out to be the last person she expected to hear from.

"Eames?" He said. "I'm downstairs. Buzz me in. " She swallowed her frustration, pushed the button and hung up the phone. She cursed his bad timing, but flung off the robe and slide into the very short, cocktail dress that had been draped across her bed. She took a moment to push one more pin into her hair, and step into her pumps before she answered Goren's knock.

"Bobby" she said letting him in.

He stepped inside and elbowed the door closed.

"Did the fax come?" She asked. He was supposed to be waiting at the office for a fax to come from the Phoenix PD. It was a list of Jason Price's priors, which had some how disappeared from their case file. They'd also agreed that he'd call _in the morning _if there was anything on the report that required her attention. They'd absolutely agreed he would _under no circumstances _call her this evening. "I have a date tonight," She'd told him in the squad room. "Do _not _call me." She'd assumed that he would understand that no phone calls also meant no visits either, but obviously, that required spelling out.

"Date?" He said it like it was a word in a rare language he didn't know.

"Yes," she said. "An actual date."

What she hadn't told him was that it was with a man who interested her very much. He'd invited her for dinner and dancing and had been very apologetic the first two times he'd cancelled. "Sorry Alex," He'd said. "It's the job." She was anticipating a very nice evening. And Goren had PROMISED not to screw it up with some pissy phone call about the misspelling of the word burglary on the faxed report or to whine about how long he had to wait for the fax. And now after all that, he was standing on the rug inside her door, acting like he'd done nothing wrong.

"Did the fax come?" she asked again. Her voice was razor sharp.

He was running his hand over the back of his neck. He seemed to be distracted. He looked at her beginning with her shoes and let his eyes wander slowly to her face like he was studying some rare or exotic museum specimen

"No," he said shaking his head. "No fax."

"Then why are you here?" She asked with a particular emphasis on the word why.

"I had to see you." This much was true.

"I'm here. You're here. What is it?" She said.

"I Googled my name."

"You Googled your name?" She closed her eyes and wished him away with all her might. When she opened them, he was still standing there.

"I put my name, Robert Goren, into the search engine space on the internet page . . ."

"I know what it means, Bobby." She interrupted. "I just don't understand why it has to screw up my evening!"

"I was bored waiting for the fax."

"Unuh? SO what?"

"They're writing about us." He said with sudden conviction and a nod for emphasis.

"Reporters?"

"No not reporters." He paused. It was a dangerous gambit with uncertain results. "It's like they're regular people and they're writing these stories. Lots and lots of stories." He said with emphasis. "They seem to think we should . . . Well you should _read_ what they're suggesting we do!"

Alex sighed loudly and pressed her lips together. She knew her partner wasn't the kind of person who stretched the truth. He never bothered with practical jokes. She could not understand what his motive might be to screw up her evening with this completely ridiculous ploy.

"Bobby, I'm sorry this isn't making any sense and my date's going to be here any minute, so you really need to go."

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper. "This is the first page," he said thrusting it towards her. "I didn't print any more. It's thousands and thousands of words long". Here he paused for effect and when he spoke again his voice was hardly a whisper, "and it's rated M in later chapters".

She looked at him, then scanned the wrinkled page. He was there alright, described down to that blue shirt she found so distracting and, to make matters worse, a woman with her name and mannerisms was stripping him out of it in the middle of the squad room. Her head began to swim. She took a step backwards and reached out for the solid assurance of the wall.

"There's more like this?" She whispered shifting her gaze from the sheet of paper to his face.

"Pages and pages." He said.

They stood there for a moment. The paper was pinched between the fingers of her right hand but she let it dangle and he just stood and looked at her. Something passed between them, a look or a thought or an intention and he reached out to take her hand and draw her near, but the phone rang and it stalled the action.

She answered it in the bedroom. Goren stood in the doorway, leaning on the jam watching and listening.

"Hi," He heard her say. "I'll buzz you in."

She set the phone back down and turned to look at him.

"My date's on his way up." She said and bit her lower lip.

Goren nodded, "I should go." But he stood his ground.

She nodded and then noticing the paper in her hand, held it out for him to take. He folded it carefully and slid it inside his jacket.

"It's a bit shocking." She said slowly. "But it could never happen."

"No", he nodded "Of course not." All the while wishing to prove her wrong.

He opened the door then and without a backward glance stepped into the hallway. The elevator chimed before he could push the button and the doors slid open. The man inside carried a dozen yellow tulips. He paused for a fraction of second when he saw Goren.

"Evening Captain," Bobby said without missing a step.

"Night, Goren," Danny Ross said over his shoulder. Goren got on the elevator and Danny Ross knocked on Alex Eames' door.

The elevator lurched to a stop and Goren got out. Reasonable doubt, that's all he wanted. Just for a moment, he wanted her to wonder if she was kissing the right man.

**Fin**

_Your comments are always appreciated- especially what you liked and what you didn't. Thanks - Dix._


End file.
